Broncos team report and notes

Read the latest team report on the Denver Broncos with notes, quotes and personel updates.

Anybody wondering whether Rod Smith is slowing down at age 33 should consider this: He's about to complete his 10th straight year of perfect attendance at the Broncos off-season conditioning program.

That's 55 days of workouts, going five days a week so he could finish early.

"He's grown only in age," said Rich Tuten, the team's strength and conditioning coach. "His attitude has stayed the same.

"He's always here every morning the same time. And he always comes in with the same attitude."

That, simply put, is to train as if he were an undrafted rookie intent on showing he belongs.

"If you don't come in with that same attitude, somebody's going to catch you," Tuten said. "You've got to train like it's your first year because there's always somebody here trying to take your job and outdo you. You can't try to get to where you were the year before; you've got to beat that."

With training camp just three weeks away, Smith has done that -- completing the program three days early.

Though Smith's attitude is a constant, Tuten said there's a night-and-day difference in his health.

"Last year he was so beat up from the year before when he was the only receiver catching balls and he was playing on a stress fracture and bad ankles," Tuten said. "It took him six months to get well and this year he's been good from Day One. He hasn't missed a beat. He's so far ahead of last year, it isn't even close."

As he gets older, Smith contends he gets smarter, doing things that make football easier on his body.

The grueling workouts, he believes, will add years to his career.

"I feel very fortunate to get to do what I do for a living," said Smith, who has posted six straight 1,000-yard seasons.

"I don't ever want to look back and say if I took it a little bit more serious I could still play. I don't want to look back and say that. I want to say I gave it all I had while I was there and now it's time to move on."

For a guy who wears the same jersey number as Jerry Rice and works out just as hard, that day likely won't come anytime soon.

Smith, once an undrafted free agent who worked his way up from the scout team, will start again this season.

The question is who will start opposite him, with second-year speedster Ashley Lelie making a push to take the starting job from veteran Ed McCaffrey.

NOTES:
--Tight end Dwayne Carswell was arrested July 3 and charged with simple battery, domestic violence and obstruction of an office following an incident in which he allegedly attacked his girlfriend outside an Atlanta nightclub. Carswell was jailed on $2,500 bail.

The complaint alleges that Carswell picked up Nkeiruka Anyamone by the neck and that there was a bite on her arm. There have other abuse violations in the last against Carswell.

"It may take a little bit of time but so far he's picked up the system and moved right along at a great pace," general manager Ted Sundquist said.

"He admits he feels like he needs more work and more time, but a lot of what Jake's going to do for us is impromptu. If you're watching a structured practice, you're not getting to see the whole Jake Plummer."

--Defensive end Trevor Pryce, intent on playing at a lower weight this year, is at about 282 this off-season.

The converted tackle hopes to play at 275 during the season.

QUOTES: "Every year, once a year I have a day that breaks me down and I can't move. This year when we came back from our little break, my back locked up. You don't think you can go anymore. I finished though. That's the key. I'm going to complain and yell and curse them out, but they know every day I'm going to be back. That's what you've got to have. If you're going to be in this business, you can't look at it as punishment. That's why you get paid what you get paid, why you get to keep your job. It works for me." -- Wide receiver Rod Smith, on Denver's grueling off-season program, in which he will have had perfect attendance for the 10th straight season.